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West Des Moines Apartments

I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for apartments in the West Des Moines area. Does anyone currently (or has) live in an apartment in that area and would you recommend a fellow cyclone fan to live at any of these places?

Re: West Des Moines Apartments

I, too lived in Boulder Ridge back in 2003 for a year and it was one of the nicer places we could find. Also one of the cheapest. Only negative was it was the closest apartment to Valley High so over the lunch hour there would be several students smoking on our steps.
They had a special at the time that gave us $1500 to use over the course of the lease whenever we wanted. That was nice for us.

Re: West Des Moines Apartments

I recommend Sherwood Glen apts. The address is Urbandale but it is right on Hickman and 86th by Perkins. Great apartment so far reasonably priced (715/mo for 2br 2 bth) Only $10 per month pet rent if you want that. And the people in the office are very hospitable, tell them Mike and Maria sent you ;)

Re: West Des Moines Apartments

All the apartments in WDM suck, pretty much. The decent ones are way expensive, and the expensive ones are managed like crap.

I lived at turtle creek for a few years, and it wasn't bad, just expensive. I was paying 1040/month, but it was a very nice 1000+ sq ft townhouse-style place, with an attached garage and a largish storage area. The biggest gripe I have is all the people who lived there thinking it was some sort of "luxury living", when it's really just another apartment complex.

You really are better of buying a starter home, if you can swing it.
The mortgage on my 180k house actually ends up costing me less over the course of a year than my apartment at Turtle Creek did, and that's not even including the equity I'm building.

My advice, if you're looking for value, is to not look in West Des Moines, since the address alone seems to add 100-200$/month to your rent.

Re: West Des Moines Apartments

Originally Posted by wartknight

I, too lived in Boulder Ridge back in 2003 for a year and it was one of the nicer places we could find. Also one of the cheapest. Only negative was it was the closest apartment to Valley High so over the lunch hour there would be several students smoking on our steps.
They had a special at the time that gave us $1500 to use over the course of the lease whenever we wanted. That was nice for us.

I moved there in 2003 as well so we possibly could have been neighbors. Yeah I got that deal too where they gave you $100 coupons when you moved in so basically it was $100 off rent a month so was like $650 a month for a spacious 2 bedroom apartment. The walls are really thick, you never hear your neighbors and we even had a pretty loud party once and no one in the building could hear it or at least didn't care I guess.

I lived in Boulder Ridge for a year in 2004. And then they jacked up their rent and I moved next door to Washington Heights. I liked it there more just because the apartments were so big.

Those were basically identical to the Boulder Ridge apartments from what I could tell. The only gripe I had about BR is their main management is out of Florida so the local management had to run anything past them if you wanted to get a deal when you extended your lease which was sort of a pain because the housing markets are completely different there than they are here.

Also try searching apartments.com and that will at least give you an idea what else is in the area. My fiance was spliting a 2 bedroom place on the Waukee side of West Des Moines that was pretty new and it ran like $850 a month I think and not nearly as big as the Boulder Ridge apartments but they are also newer and in an area where there is a lot of new construction going on.

Re: West Des Moines Apartments

You can find some great deals on privately owned townhomes and duplexes. We found one just off 86th street after school, 3 bed, two bath living room and family room for $750 a month. Had a huge backyard too!

Re: West Des Moines Apartments

Lived at Polo Club on 60th and E.P. True for a year. Pretty nice place, nice pool, small workout center, 2BR 2BA, 950 sq ft, I think it was about $800/mo. Garage was extra, like $50/mo. Management was friendly and it was a pretty quiet place. I would recommend it.

Re: West Des Moines Apartments

If you can at all swing it - now's not a bad time to buy a starter home and there are alot in the WDM area. Pretty low rates and by all accounts - very much a buyers market.

Sorry - otherwise can't help you on the apt front. The one place I lived in used to be called Canterbury apts in Urbandale, behind the K-Mart on Hickman. I do NOT recommend it.

I would second this. Especially if you can get a roommate to move in with you and have him/her pay you rent. Then it will about the same price as living alone in an apartment if you find a reasonably priced starter home (which should be fairly easy right now).

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